Remaining Fantasy 16 is the furthest the mainline collection has ever strayed from its conventional RPG roots. It is extra of an motion recreation with RPG components bolted on than it’s an RPG with motion fight, however on the identical time, it boasts all the elements that we affiliate with the best Remaining Fantasy titles. Its character-driven story is grand and intoxicating, its fantastical world constructing is sensible, and it is match to burst with wonderful battles. Once more, it is a daring new course for the beloved franchise, however it’s additionally the perfect mainline, single-player Remaining Fantasy recreation since 12 — and it is not even shut.
Granted, the extremely divisive 13 and 15 did not precisely set a excessive bar, however with 16, it appears like Remaining Fantasy is concentrated once more. This was a venture with a transparent imaginative and prescient, and that shines by means of within the spectacular cinematic high quality of the storytelling, and the largely glorious fight system. When the credit rolled, we felt like we would been on a memorable, emotional journey and we had been unhappy to see it finish. That is what ending a Remaining Fantasy recreation ought to really feel like.
For this specific journey, you are plopped within the persistently tragic footwear of Clive Rosfield — a noble-born swordsman charged with the safety of his throne-bound youthful brother. On this world, a choose few — together with Clive’s little bro Joshua — are primarily born with the facility of demigods within them. Some nations use these ‘Eikons’ to wage struggle, whereas others worship them. These omnipotent entities are on the coronary heart of the sport’s story, and each time an Eikon takes to the stage — whether or not it is throughout an eye-popping cutscene or a mind-melting boss struggle — it is laborious to not be blown away.
Remaining Fantasy 16’s narrative is a reasonably intricate mixture of grounded political intrigue — all very harking back to Remaining Fantasy 12 — and loopy Eikon-based chaos, with magic and crystals and superhuman feats that would not really feel misplaced in Dragon Ball Z. In some way, the sport’s plot manages to meld all of this collectively with out creating tonal whiplash, and that is maybe all the way down to its principally immaculate script. Certainly, the localisation staff deserves a lot reward right here, as a result of they’ve taken a Japanese script and reworked it into one thing that feels fully pure, topping it off with some excellent voice performing.
When the sh*t hits the fan — and it does, so much — Remaining Fantasy 16 tells a really gripping story. It is up there with probably the most emotionally impactful plots in fashionable gaming, and it is additional bolstered by cinematic motion sequences that may make God of Conflict 3 blush. We’ve not seen spectacle fairly like this in a lengthy time, and because the story develops, it solely will get increasingly more obsessive about one-upping itself on the “is that this really occurring?” scale.
Now, given its penchant for prolonged cutscenes, you could be sitting there nervous that Remaining Fantasy 16 is extra film than recreation. It is a honest concern should you’ve dabbled within the demo — which options the title’s cutscene-heavy prologue — however fortunately, fight and exploration are simply as prevalent as the large story moments. Whereas there is not any doubt that it is a cinematic expertise at the start — it is precisely what Sq. Enix desires you to see in trailers and punctiliously curated shows — you may nonetheless spend most of your playthrough battering beasts and wandering throughout massive environments.
Structurally, the sport jumps between very linear, story-slinging ‘dungeons’, and entire chapters the place you are free to roam open areas, ticking off aspect quests and attending to know secondary characters. Remaining Fantasy 16’s plot pacing might be so intense that it is good to have some downtime now and again, so we did finally discover ourselves welcoming the chance to simply go off and do our personal factor for a bit.
Nevertheless, we are saying ‘finally’ as a result of among the aspect quests — significantly early on — are mind-numbingly boring. The drop off in general high quality between the principle story and these non-compulsory duties might be jarring, as partaking digicam angles and full movement seize are changed by static character fashions and flapping mouths, spewing the type of fully forgettable quests you’d discover in an MMO (which does make some sense, seeing as this recreation is spearheaded by Remaining Fantasy 14 builders).
The issue is that we’re gone having to chew by means of such dreary aspect quests in fashionable RPGs. In an period the place titles like The Witcher 3 and Horizon Forbidden West have redefined what we have come to anticipate from branching actions, Remaining Fantasy 16 might as nicely be a PS2 launch by way of questing. Some quests do assist flesh out the world, offering perception into the finer factors of the lore, however when the accompanying gameplay actually boils all the way down to discovering objective-marked NPCs and listening to their inane prattle, one after one other, you’ll be able to’t assist however really feel as if your time is being wasted.
Luckily, when the following story beat kicks in and also you’re again on the rollercoaster, you’ll be able to forgive the title’s (admittedly non-compulsory) missteps. The aforementioned ‘dungeons’ characterize the core recreation at its peak, as Clive rages by means of a collection of gorgeous areas, peppered with close to completely positioned encounters and jaw-dropping boss battles.
Alongside the story, it is actually the fight system that holds every little thing collectively. Accessible and flashy, but in addition stocked with an intriguing diploma of depth, Remaining Fantasy 16 performs a bit of bit like a streamlined Satan Might Cry. The inputs are comparatively easy, however the, er, satan’s within the particulars, as you step by step begin to discover extra superior methods like parries and assault cancelling. On a elementary degree, it feels improbable to play, with responsive controls, slick animations, and satisfying sound design.
Extra essential fights — in opposition to foes that may’t simply be launched into the air and combo’d into oblivion — revolve round dodging incoming assaults and retaliating on the proper time. Apart from only a handful of particular battles which might be virtually too graphically busy for their very own good, the visible cues — the methods through which enemies wind up their assaults and unleash particular strikes — are extraordinarily nicely designed. This results in a problem curve that always feels extremely rewarding, the place over the course of a protracted battle, you may familiarize yourself with precisely what your opponent is able to, and study to take full benefit.
Together with Clive’s customary sword swings and magic projectiles, you are steadily given entry to a variety of elemental, Eikon-driven talents that function on particular person cooldowns. After unlocking mentioned talents with factors that you just achieve from battle, they are often assigned to your fight bar, and you start to construct your personal fashion of play. Some talents are ground-shakingly {powerful} however they’re balanced with lengthy cooldowns, whereas others are rather more versatile, including distinctive quirks to the way in which you strategy completely different enemy sorts. Once more, the system itself is straightforward to know, however discovering methods to hyperlink every little thing collectively is the place the mechanics begin to sing.
Again to the subject of problem, Remaining Fantasy 16 provides you only one problem degree that may be made simpler by equipping particular equipment, that are granted at first of any new recreation. It is an odd manner of doing issues, however we suppose it really works in that there is not any must rebalance all the fight system to go well with arbitrary settings. Nevertheless, gamers who’re extra skilled with motion video games are in all probability going to crave a larger problem, and that is the place the touted ‘Remaining Fantasy’ laborious mode enters the equation.
Remaining Fantasy mode makes your foes stronger, remixes numerous encounters, and even unlocks the extent cap whereas including new gadgets and tools. The catch? It is solely playable after beating the sport, by means of New Sport +. Now, we get it: Remaining Fantasy mode is designed so as to add replay worth to the bundle — a motive to hitch Clive on his journey once more, and daring you to push the fight system to its limits. However it is a little bit of a kicker that the idea of a more durable problem is locked behind a full playthrough — a playthrough that may already final upwards of 70 hours if you wish to full every little thing.
It is fairly a minor criticism, although. Regardless of its unwavering deal with story and fight — there aren’t any minigames right here in any respect, eschewing collection custom — Remaining Fantasy 16 feels strong and full as an motion recreation bundle. Between hunts that see Clive observe down and slay particularly harmful monsters, to the flexibility to replay your favorite dungeons — full with boss fights — by means of a devoted arcade mode, the title totally embraces its lovingly crafted fight system.
The PS5 is embraced similarly, by means of the magic of ridiculously quick load instances (severely, it takes lower than ten seconds to get out of your console’s residence display to gameplay) and haptic suggestions, which is very well carried out all through.
Is it a technical showpiece for Sony’s system, although? Whereas its cutscenes definitely rival and at instances surpass the requirements set by PlayStation Studios, it is not fairly on the extent of a first-party blockbuster general. Typically talking, the visuals are vastly spectacular — backed by superb artwork course and environmental design — however as we wrote earlier, issues can look tough outdoors of the principle story, with distractingly wood animations being the largest difficulty.
After which there’s the body price, which does wish to dip on a reasonably common foundation when utilizing efficiency mode. The dips aren’t distracting sufficient to the purpose the place we would advocate the graphics choice — which caps at 30 frames-per-second in alternate for barely higher visible high quality — however it’s an actual disgrace that such an in any other case refined motion recreation cannot keep a easy 60fps. It is also price noting that, at the very least at launch, there is not any choice to disable the title’s heavy-handed movement blur impact — though we daresay you get used to it.
In fact, this would not be a Remaining Fantasy overview with out mentioning the music. Merely put, the rating is excellent; an absolute odyssey of orchestral magic that enriches each cutscene, each location, each battle. In a phrase, immense.